The present invention relates as indicated to an apparatus for disinfection and chemical purification of toilet bowls.
Toilet bowls have hitherto usually been disinfected and chemically purified by feeding a certain amount of a granular or liquid agent, intended specifically for purifying and disinfecting such toilet bowls, directly from bottles or other containers into the toilet bowls. This method of chemical purification and disinfection has the disadvantage that cleanliness and deodorization of the bowls can be achieved only by regular purification at intervals of a few hours. A person who continually carries out this purification must be available.
In order to overcome this disadvantage, another procedure proposed consisted in placing at the edge of the toilet bowls disinfecting and purifying agents in solid form which, when surrounded by the flush flow, dissolved at their surface and thus at each flushing, discharging materials into the toilet bowl. These suspended devices are not only of unsightly appearance but also obstruct the mechanical purification of the toilet bowls. These disinfecting lumps must be kept small, which leads to the result that the available quantities of disinfectants are too small to yield disinfectants for any substantial length of time. With progressive consumption of the disinfecting lump and thus diminishing surface, the amount of disinfectant discharged per flush becomes smaller and smaller, and therefore the disinfection becomes less and less sufficient. The suspended disinfecting devices are thus to be considered merely supplemental to manual purification and disinfection.
More than half a century ago it was proposed to introduce the disinfecting and purifying liquid directly into the flush water supply pipe from a device rigidly mounted thereto and consisting of a storage container with a valve. For opening the valve a small lever, one end of which protrudes into the feed pipe, is provided. To install this device, a special construction of the feed pipe, or at least the insertion of a pipe element with the device fastened thereto, was necessary. This proposal accordingly has not been used in practice since to alter the existing pipe lines would be very expensive. Even when such toilet installations were newly built, the device would have caused considerable additional expense. When repairs were required, abstention from using the toilet had to be taken into account as well as the repair expenses.